Mt. Gox

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The most widely used bitcoin currency exchange market[1]. Bitcoins are bought on using funds from the trader's MTGUSD balance with Mt. Gox and when bitcoins are the funds from the proceeds are added to the trader's MTGUSD account with Mt. Gox.

Trades on Mt. Gox's execute from balances on deposit with the exchange which in turn makes trading on the market instantaneous, compared to some other Bitcoin markets where a subsequent settlement occurs manually between the trading partners.

Trading

Buying

A buy order is executed partially or in full when the price bid can be matched against a sell order that is at or below the bid amount.

Selling

A sell order is executed partially or in full when the price asked can be matched against a buy order that is at or above the ask amount.

Dark Pool

A dark pool allows large quantities to be sold without the orders being visible. This helps to lessen the price moves that would likely result when the price and size of a large order is known.

Dark Pool Only Orders

Can be filled only by other dark pool orders or a single normal order that is larger than the dark pool order. This means that if there is a single normal order that would fill the dark pool order both will be filled.

Dark Pool + Normal Orders

Can be filled either partially from the normal orders or the dark pool.

Fees

Mt. Gox subtracts a 0.65% trading fee from each party of successful trades made through the market.

When buying bitcoins, the fee will cause the number of Bitcoins bought to be 0.65% fewer. In other words, after buying 1.0 BTC the BTC balance for the account will increase by just 0.9935 BTC (1.0 BTC less the 0.0065 BTC fee)[2]. The per-BTC trade price reflected in the account history shows an amount recomputed to reflect the fee. The Quantity X Trade Price from the buy order will total the same dollar amount as is subtracted from the account after the trade executes.

When selling bitcoins, the fee will cause the proceeds of the sale to be 0.065 lower. After selling $100 worth of bitcoins the USD balance for the account will increase by just $99.35 USD ($100 USD less the $0.65 USD fee).

Adding Funds

BTC

There are no fees incurred when transferring bitcoins to a Mt. Gox account. Funds are available once confirmed (6 blocks)[3], a process that can take roughly an hour.

Note: Even though the site displays no ads, some browser ad-blocking utilities will interfere with the exchange's web site, specifically with the Add Bitcoins function.

LRUSD

There are no fees incurred when adding Liberty Reserve LRUSD funds to an account. Funds are available in minutes.

Dwolla

This option is among the fastest and least expensive methods for adding funds to a Mt. Gox account. The transaction fee on Dwolla costs just $0.25. The process is automated and the funds are available for trading within an hour[4].

International USD Bank Wire

Funds in USD may be wired to the exchange's bank in Japan. Each wire is subject to a per-wire fee plus any intermediate fees.

Direct Deposit

EU

Funds in EUR may be added using SEPA Direct Debit for free, with funds convert to USD at the current ECB rate at the time the funds are received[5].

U.S.

Adding funds to Dwolla from a bank account will use ACH though. The bank wire funding method has been temporarily disontinued due to difficulties in processing. Another banking relationship is being pursued.

Australia

Funds may be sent using direct deposit (BPay) for a AU$2.00 per-deposit fee. The funds will be converted to USD at the current rate.

Withdrawing Funds

MtGox imposes a $1,000 USD limit for withdrawals per 24 hours and a $10,000 USD limit for withdrawals per month. and Bitcoins withdrawn are counted toward this limit as well and the USD value is calculated at the market rate at the time of the attempted withdrawal. Any account-to-account transfers made also count toward this limit as well.

Those in the EU may contact the exchange to arrange for a significantly higher withdrawal limit.

Dwolla

Dwolla is among the fastest and least expensive methods for withdrawing USD funds from a Mt. Gox account. The transaction fee to do so is just $0.25.

BTC

Bitcoins may be withdrawn at no charge.

There have been sporadic reports where withdrawing the entire bitcoin balance results in an error message. This could the be the result of a possible error where the amount available for withdrawal gets miscalculated due to a rounding error. In at least one instance, a subsequent attempt to withdraw all but the last 1 BTC completed successfully.

LRUSD

There are two fees incurred when withdrawing LRUSD. Mt. Gox themselves subtracts 1% of the transfer amount as a fee before transferring away. Liberty Reserve then subtracts as a transfer fee 1% from the amount they've received.

For example, to withdraw $100 LRUSD, Mt. Gox will send $99 ($100 less a 1% fee)[6] Liberty Reserve will subtract $0.99 ($99 less a 1% fee) leaving a net amount at Liberty Received of $98.01.

Direct Deposit

U.S.

There is currently no option for withdrawing funds through a direct deposit bank transaction. Funds withdrawn to Dwolla may then, in turn, be withdrawn with bank funds deposited as an ACH transaction. The direct ACH withdrawal method has been temporarily disontinued due to difficulties in processing. Another banking relationship is being pursued.

EU

You may withdraw any amount as a direct deposit to your bank. There is a 2% fee on these withdrawals. Contact the exchange by e-mail for this service.

Transfers to Other Customers

Mt. Gox funds, either USD or BTC, may be sent to another Mt. Gox customer using the Send Money form. The button that links to the form is made visible when an account has "Merchant Services" option enabled.

Customer Service

The preferred method for obtaining service is to place a request through the exchange's help desk. Another method is to send e-mail with the request.

Wallet/Banking

An account at this exchange can be considered to be an eWallet. This service also offers eCommerce merchant payment services.

API

Mt Gox offers a trading API which can be used to automate operations described above. There is also a Perl module for interacting with the API.

Criticism

When adding bitcoin funds from the addFunds page, the prompt asks for the Amount. It is not obvious why the exchange needs to know this nor is it obvious what, if anything, will happen if an amount larger or smaller than that specified is sent. [Update - design issue, likely for performance reasons[7].

After the addFunds form is displayed, it is not apparent to the user how to determine that address again. An account holder could become confused as to whether or not the correct address was used but after closing that page, there's no way to know at a later time what address "Send Bitcoins" had yielded.

Data Services

History

The exchange went online on July 18, 2010.[8]

On October 10, 2010 the exchange switched from PayPal to Liberty Reserve as the main funding option as a result of this attack. Former PayPal customers still had the possibility to withdraw their USD using alternative methods.

On March 6th, 2011 ownership of the exchange changed hands[9].

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ 2011-06-07 on #bitcoin-otc: "MagicalTux: you could use the count of users on mtgox (went over 30k recently)"
  2. ↑ Dear Mt. Gox. Please make your accounting easier to understand.
  3. ↑ How long does it take to Deposit bitcoins to MtGox?
  4. ↑ Dwolla to Mt. Gox vs. Dwolla to TradeHill
  5. ↑ MTGox: Euro deposits
  6. ↑ One member of Bitcoin-otc reports that this appears to be a 0.99% fee, not a 1.0%.
  7. ↑ MtGox wants nine confirmations now?
  8. ↑ MtGox announcement on forum
  9. ↑ Mtgox is changing owners
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